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The quest for appropriate God-images within an African paradigm for pastoral ministry

Kasambala, Amon Eddie (2000)

Thesis (MTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2000

Thesis

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This proposal focuses on the quest for appropriate God-images which can be
used to represent God in a given pastoral situation within an African context. It
identifies the challenge that confronts the African people as they try to find what
can be accepted within the African culture to express their experience of God.
The study argues that pastoral care and cross-cultural communication are faced
with a twofold problem: the problem of accommodation (continuity) and rejection
(discontinuity). It has been observed that the problem of accommodation and
rejection is an integral feature of a theological problem of continuity and
discontinuity in cross-cultural communication. The problem of accommodation
and rejection has been described in this study as: the challenge African people
confront in trying to express their experience of God in a given pastoral
situation, while at the same time being aware of what is not acceptable and
appropriate to the content of the Christian faith.
The basic working assumption undertaken by this research, states that
appropriate God-images are those which represent God and create an
experience of meaning and significance in any kind of circumstance faced by
His people. We will presuppose further that appropriate God-images are those
which are not going to conflict with a theological interpretation of the Godhuman
encounter in a given pastoral care situation. In order to clarify these
basic assumptions, the study has undertaken to work with a Hermeneutical
model. A hermeneutical model will help us to identify the underlying factors of
an African cosmology and anthropology which, according to this study,
influences the way African people formulate their God-images. It will be argued
further that unless we understand what influences the way African people
formulate God-images, we will not comprehend the depth of the problem of
accommodation and rejection in an African context. The research proposal wishes to emphasize that the African quest for
appropriate God-images is a pastoral problem. Pastoral ministry has a
challenge of providing a pastoral diagnosis of God-images which people can
identify with. Pastoral ministry should make use of metaphors and symbols
common to African people in order to facilitate their quest for appropriate Godimages.

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